Casanova [DVD]

If you're old enough to have seen the "Carry On" movies the first time around, or have watched them on DVD on "oldies night", (don't worry, we're not going to ask your age) you'll see the resemblance to this funny take on the world's greatest lover. Slapstick, double entendres and misunderstandings abound, as Heath Ledger tries to fill the trousers of the legendary lothario without getting a broken back in the process.

It takes place in 1753 in Venice, a time when no woman is safe from the charms of Casanova, not even those confined to the convent. Luckily for him he has friends in the right places and escapes being strung up for debauchery (a big word which in the movie means that he shakes a lot of bedsprings without the benefit of a marriage license)

After going one conquest too far, his friend the Doge insists that Casanova get married ASAP, or face exile from Venice. Exile is not a possibility, as we learn early in the movie that he has a very good reason for sticking around, so marriage it is, and the lady to whom he pledges his troth is not only a virgin, but extremely willing to be wed. In a classic case of bad timing, he then meets the one woman worthy of his affection, and she turns out to be a cross-dressing (but only when necessary to prove a point) feminist writer who hates every bone in his body. She unfortunately is betrothed to a corpulent but very wealthy lard merchant (Oliver Platt) whom she has never set eyes on before, the union having being arranged by her late father as an insurance policy for the family fortune.

If you're still with me after all that, things get even more complicated when Jeremy Irons shows up as Inquisitor Pucci, out for the bewigged head of Casanova as a gift for the hangman's noose.

The important thing is not to attempt to take this movie seriously as a period piece, or as a factual account of the life of Casanova. It is a historically set spoof of the life and especially the times of Casanova and should be taken with a pinch of salt - or was that lard?

Amanda Richards

Giacomo Casanova (Heath Ledger) has a problem. The Roman Inquisition is after him, accusing him of perversion, debauchery and moral licentiousness. It is 1750s Venice, and the carousing Casanova has been working his way through the nunneries of Venice. The local Catholic inquisitor (Ken Stott) tells him that in order to save his depraved neck from the gallows, he must marry. So he sets his sights on the city's most eligible virgin (Natalie Dormer).

At the same time he meets the feisty proto-feminist Francesca (Sienna Miller) at a duel and falls in love with her. Because women are banned from publishing, Francesca is secretly writing female empowerment books under an assumed name and is betrothed to the famed porcine lard merchant Paprizzio (Oliver Platt). Her family led by her beautiful mother (Lena Olin) is poor and badly needs the money.

How can Casanova get the woman he loves, whilst staying away from certain death at the gallows? He begins a game of cat and mouse, hiding behind various identities to get what he really wants. But then a new inquisitor (Jeremy Irons) suddenly arrives from the Vatican, determined to clean up Venice, which he sees as the cesspit of fornication. He makes it perfectly clear that he's determined to arrest and hang Casanova, who is the ultimate threat to moral authority.

The film is fun and entertaining. It's also silly and hectic and remarkably sanitized - you won't find much naughty, bawdy sex-fuelled romping in this Casanova. Heath Ledger maybe nimble and rakish, but he's not that sexy, he's also rather bland and walks through this role. Casanova may be synonymous with sexual abandon, but in this version, he's duty-bound to please the ladies who swoon at his feet and is more concerned with finding true love than looking for his next sexual conquest.

There's no doubt Casanova is gorgeous to look at, in fact, the film is a little too gorgeous, with director Lasse Hållstrom over producing the film to within an inch of its life. The real location scenes of Venice are fabulous, but it all looks so clean and scrubbed, set-dressed and over-lit that it might as well be in a Hollywood studio. Costumes are elaborate and sumptuous, locations are grand and glorious, but it all strangely detracts from the realism of the story.

Over-production isn't the only problem. The script is downright embarrassing in places, and quirky one-liners that are meant to produce laughs fall flat with the weight of a lead balloon. The humour desperately needs the smart, twisty inventiveness that Tom Stoppard brought to Shakespeare in Love. This script is merely cheeky, never engaging us on any romantic or thematic level besides the general cuteness of it all.

Fortunately the fast-paced plot keeps the movie rolling along. Although Ledger isn't the actor I would pick to play Casanova - Colin Farrell or Jeremy Northam would have been a much better choice - he manages to be charming enough. Sienna Miller looks absolutely gorgeous and overflows with sparkly personality and fighting spirit, even though she never manages to create that much chemistry with Ledger. Olin is luminous as always as Francesca's mum, while Platt and Irons clearly have the most fun with their characters.

There's never a dull moment, even as the storyline gets more and more ridiculous, and there's always a jaunty tone that keeps us engaged. Most annoying is the endless irritating baroque music, that just keeps playing and playing, it distracts from the action and rises in the most inappropriate places.

In the end, Casanova plays more like a watered-down children's film, a type of PG thirteen sex farce, rather than the sophisticated, witty romp the filmmakers were clearly aiming for. It's a pity, because even though there's a real spark to all the silliness, with just a little bit more edginess, the film could have been another Tom Jones, a rather than a somewhat bargain basement, and second-rate Shakespeare In Love. Mike Leonard April 06.

I couldn't remember the newspaper reviews for this movie and on the basis that it made no great splash didn't have high expectations for it. But I found it a total delight - funny, fast-moving, slyly anachronistic (a la Shakespeare in Love which it somewhat resembles) and sumptuous to look at. If you come to it expecting a distillation of Casanova's endless memoirs covering the length and breadth of Europe then you'll be disappointed and better advised to get the recent BBC series. This is basically a Venetian romp which simply hinges on the gent's reputation, but as such most enjoyable (and unlike another reviewer here I loved the baroque music!)